Which is why, when I stand behind my children and see what they see, I feel as if all that longing as a child, in my bedroom alone with my books, was for a reason.

They say you shouldn’t live your life through you kids and I agree with that to an extent. You’ll not find me going to pubs or clubs with them when they are teenagers for instance but if they wanted to join Robert and I  for supper at a great restaurant or an opening night at the Royal Court they are more than welcome.

But this weekend I unashamedly found myself trying to imagine what it was like to be them growing up in the environment that they find themselves in. Because this was the environment I had dreamt of.

I have no idea exactly how Robert and I got here. Looking back we must have both been on a very similar path when we joined forces and those deep desires have led us to live out here in West Sussex. But one of the side effects of this hidden drive and desire is that we get to see our children experiencing freedom in the outdoors. And it brings such deep joy to me that it is worth having to wait until I’m 36 years old to see it.

Of course our kids will have dreams of their own, we understand that as parents. We certainly don’t want them to have our dreams that would be awful. But we do want them to know desire and envision a big life and understand that dreams are not a gift, given to you, but a journey that a person has to take, with all the twists and turns in the road that your dream presents you with.

My daughter may not grow up wanting to see the open sky more than anything else in the whole wide world, that was my dream, but she may have something she wants to do and contribute to so much that she dedicates her life to it.

I think what I’m trying to say is that I look at our kids and I think they are very lucky and very fortunate and occasionally it worries me because Robert and I know that there is absolutely nothing better than having a dream and finding ways to make that dream a reality. How does one instill a work ethic when one has so much?

I remember seeing a doll in a shop when I was not even five years old. It was a huge doll and stood nearly as tall as me. I begged my mum for that doll and she said that I could have it but it would take her a while to pay for it. Each and every week we went in to that little toy shop and paid a little bit more for it until one day I got to take it home. I loved that doll, I appreciated it and when I lost one of her shoes in the dentist’s waiting room I didn’t even cry I was so upset. I just remained rather stunned for days.

Waiting for that doll was an amazing lesson in delaying gratification.

The other day when I was in the supermarket with my twins they let rip with screams that could be heard all over the store. I grabbed two toy phones off the shelf and gave them one each. I paid for them with my shopping and now those phones sit in the toy box. Hmmmmmm, you can see what I’m saying.

My husband and I have a job to do raising them, as every other parent before us has had. No different really just a different set of problems and we’ll get there if we pay attention and relish the task. Which we do.

These are just thoughts today. Thoughts that I find good to bash out on to the keyboard. That’s OK I think, it’s always OK to examine dreams and desires when you have children because one day you may be called upon to guide them through theirs and I want to be as ready as I can be.

I love you and thank you for reading

Cherry x

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Good morning!
Thank you so much for all of your craft suggestions and telling me your words for the year. I love the dialogue we have and want to encourage more of that. Something I’ve been thinking about trying to facilitate since my Shall We Talk post from last year. I think I’m almost there. At the moment I am working hard to submit the text for the book. I have a deadline and it has to be met which is why I asked you the crafting question. When the book has been submitted I am once again free to come out and play. And play I shall. With crochet, fabric and knitting it would seem!!!

It’s an intense time and I still have to make time for my family so I need a way of escaping and relaxing that doesn’t require too much effort from me. I do this by being very selective about the types of music I listen to in the car. In the Summertime my music is very different from just prior to Christmas and it is very different when I am stressed or tense than when I am happy and carefree. Different Spotify playlists for different moods.

Right now I need the music to calm me and focus my mind. I need it to replenish my soul and enable me to dig deep and write the words for the book that I won’t mind reading back to myself in twenty years time. I don’t mind that the music is in many ways thought inducing. I think that is good, especially when I play this selection in the morning.

You see, Winter mornings in West Sussex are the most beautiful mornings that I can imagine and when I am out in my car, with or without the babies in the back, these mornings never fail to move me. The sun shines so brightly across the South Downs and lights up the silhouette of the bare trees and the small white sheep in the hillside. And it makes me so grateful to be alive and able to see those things because if you live in a city, which most of us do at one time or another, then that view is not one that you get to see very often. Mornings, in all their glory, make me believe in life again. So it’s only appropriate that they should have a suitable soundtrack to accompany them.

Enjoy. And do tell me if you like them or if you have some favourites too.

I love you and thank you so much for reading.

Cherry x

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My word for 2012 is ENERGY. Let me explain why.

By the time 2011 had wrapped I had, over the last three years, been pregnant twice, lost both those babies in very painful and graphic ways, been through a twin pregnancy, major abdominal surgery (if anyone tells me that a C-Section is anything less I’ll have to take issue with them), had spinal fluid leaking in to my body just after the birth, completed every night feed my twins ever had (with Robert), written a book, taken part in three book shoots, lost my husband to a hospital in London for 6 weeks while he was being treated for leukemia, moved house three times, gained two magazine columns, seen my sister catch pneumonia on a hospital table, and grieved the loss of two friends. Both my age and taken unnecessarily.

In November of last year I went to my doctor because, as I said to her, I felt like I was “flat lining”. No amount of sleep would help me feel more alive, awake or energised. By the time I had made it up to the shower in the morning I was already yawning heavily. Evenings didn’t exist and weekends were a blur of trying to sleep when the babies had a nap and asking Robert to have them while I took a time out. Of course during this time I had things to do, places to be, commitments that I had made and dreams that were coming true. So on those occasions you’d be very right in thinking I just pulled it out the bag. I had to. And besides these commitments were not things that were dull, deadly or things I didn’t enjoy. They were things that set my heart on fire, inspired me and made me believe so wholly in the world around me that I could hardly contain myself. But like I said, I was flat lining.

So I went for blood tests and when they came back I sat in front of the nurse while she looked at me and then looked back at the test results and then looked back at me while she muttered “god, you poor thing” like I wasn’t in the room. Not one to resist the chance to ask a few questions I immediately responded with “er, what do you mean by that?” In layman’s terms I had no Iron and no B12 and it turns out that I was officially suffering from Pernicious Anemia. My body was essentially suffocating and 100 years ago I would have died had I not eaten 1.5 pounds of liver a day. I’m not a huge fan of offal so I’m glad the treatment has progressed. I shall have to have B12 shots for the rest of my life, take huge amounts of Iron supplements and will apparently begin to feel normal around March of this year. I’m certainly no longer flat lining but it has been a wake up call for me to prioritise various bits and bobs and make the time to have a bit more fun. The last three years have been a huge life learning curve and I simply thought that it was stress catching up with me. My friends and family were all urging us to take a break, have a holiday, you’ve all been through a lot. Which was fine but in my mind I had sneaky suspicion that there was something else up and thank goodness it was diagnosed very quickly after it became so debilitating.
So where does that leave me starting 2012. Well, very positively. Loss is a horrid thing and I have experienced loss and near loss last year ending with loosing a part of myself that I consider valuable, my energy. But loss can also be worked in to your life in a positive way and eventually end up enabling you to feel very grateful for what you have because in the words of the great Joni Mitchell “you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone”.

I’m taking better care of myself, becoming much more selective with what I have around me, what I read, what I watch, what I talk about and what I allow myself to spend time thinking about. I read a great quote the other day which said “Worry is a waste of imagination”. AMEN!

You see I believe that not only does my energy come from within me it is also transferred from everything else around me. So if I’m filling my home, environment and my body with bad energy then it doesn’t matter if my B12 levels are rocking I’ll still have that to contend with. We can’t control our environment all of the time but the things I do have around me I want them to add to my life and that of my family and not take away from them.
So that’s it.

Energy.

Ironically I’m writing this while feeling very tired physically but extremely buoyant in every other way. I’m rested and just need to allow a wee bit more time for things to level out. Which they will.
So I’m going in to this year with hopes held very high. Very certain of what is important and where my life is heading. I’m growing in confidence as a mummy and am allowing myself to be the parent I always wanted to be. I’m really looking forward to tackling new projects at home, in the kitchen and in my life in general and very much appreciate you, the reader, giving me the opportunity to share them with you.
It’s really exciting, I can’t even begin to tell you, but there is a calmness at the center of a storm that manifests itself as a very busy life. A still, quiet place that needed to rescue itself from the madness. I would describe that place as my spirit. My spirit needed energy and that is why I have chosen the word I have.

Last year the word I chose was Celebrate. On the outside I didn’t think there was anything to celebrate, it just seemed like punch in the face followed punch in the face. But on reflection there was a huge amount of celebrating to be done! My husband DID get better, my kids ARE healthy, I HAVE been diagnosed, Jodie IS out of hospital, Henry IS healthy, the book shoot went INCREDIBLY well, I write for SAINSBURY’S magazine, we are all STILL here. See? Loads to celebrate.

And I believe for 2012 and for my word. Energy. Good energy. Clean, positive, life affirming, fresh, beautiful, pure energy. It will take willpower, good choices, a steady mind, a gentle heart and courage. But I’ll get there. And whatever your word is for the year you’ll get there too. We’ll do it together. Because we’re in this Big Life together and I’m afraid there’s nothing you can do about that.

You’re stuck with me!

I love you, thank you for reading and if you have chosen a word for 2012 it would mean a great deal to hear why you have chosen the word you have.
Cherry x

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The bad times come and go and leave us older, wiser and a wee bit more haggard. And then the good times swing by for a visit and leave us refreshed, joyful and hopeful. Refueled to carry on with our days. Thank goodness life is cyclical.

Well this is a good time for me in my life and I am celebrating it.

As of January 4th I shall be writing a brand new craft column for Sainsbury’s Magazine. They haven’t had a craft column before and I am terrifically honoured to have been asked to do it. I buy this magazine and like it a lot and there was tremendous whooping on the sofa last week when I saw myself pictured……

I mean look! I’m there with Nige and The Berry with a picture my sister took of me in my old kitchen, next to two of my heroes. I’ve read Nigel’s memoir Toast and have all of his shows on my Sky box. I also have the AGA books that Mary writes and watched the Great British Bake Off with great interest hanging on her every word of advice.

Surreal and very, very exciting. An amazing Chrismtas present as I had no idea the magazine would announce it and I was told about it via Twitter.

Thank you to Sainsbury’s Magazine and my editor Helena Lang for this wonderful opportunity. For taking a shot on an unknown.

Each month the column will feature brand new original crafts that haven’t been seen before on my website  although we are kicking off with a classic that some of you may recognise. I really hope you, as a reader of this site, enjoy the piece and will try the crafts. If you can’t get the magazine where you live I will speak to the publishers about getting some scanned versions for this website.

Have a fantastic week. I will be uploading my Pomegranate Wreath this week so if you dried your Poms along with me you’ll finally know what to do them.

I love you and thank you so much for reading today.

Cherry x

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Yesterday was a pottering day. You know the sort, all the Christmas bags are out on the floor and you have to decide where to put the lights, which plugs to use, are people going to break their necks if they trip over the wire, that sort of thing.

Yesterday was also the day that the dining room carpet was laid. There was some mix up and it came later than all the others. But we’re all sorted now so I could get in to that room and give it a good Christmas thrashing.

Lights everywhere. Even teacups are unsafe.

I have a lot of plates, random plates, mismatching plates that belong to no particular set. I’ve stopped buying them actually as I don’t know what to do with the piles of plates. But when I see them sitting in a thrift shop for ten pence each I can’t help but grab ten at a time. Anyway, a few weeks ago I’d set some aside to go on to the wall when the Dining Room was nearing completion. Yesterday was that day so I got this wee collection out and started to think about whereabouts on the wall they should all go.

I didn’t have long to think because my daughter stopped by and decided to play drums on them.

Not the best idea you’ve ever had, Nye!

So they’re up now and I like them. I will add to them perhaps but not until the tree has been taken down in the New Year.

My fake white tree that I bought from Sainsbury’s last year. LOVE IT!

It’s slender and sits in this corner really nicely.

I put the kids to bed last night before they had seen all of the lights on and in action. So this morning before I got them up I turned everything on. Nye stepped out of the bedroom and said “wow, lights”. Ned stepped out and said “down”. He didn’t care for the lights but knew that breakfast was downstairs not on the landing.

After porridge I took them in to the newly carpeted dining room and I put some Christmas songs on. We have a little jig in the morning to two songs that they both randomly seem to really like.

That’ll Be Christmas by Thea Gilmore and Leroy Anderson’s Sleigh Ride. No rhyme or reason to it but those two are the favourites.

Can you see Nye in the background bending down to pick something up from the floor?

Here she is a few seconds later with the offending article in her hand. She does that often. Clears spaces of ‘stuff’ that she doesn’t like and hands me little pieces of paper or leaves that have come in on our shoes. “Dirty” she says. To which I say “Yes, very good girl, and if you want to continue being this neat and tidy Anaïs that’s alright by me!!”

No harm in starting them young on those types of habits that REALLY do help you out around the place!

Have a fantastic weekend. I have my forth B12 shot today. No difference being felt yet but I’m trying not to rush it and get despondent. I’ll have to have them for the rest of my life apparently which is ironic because before I knew this piece of information I was very much afraid of injections. Hmmmmmmmm! No point in that now I guess.

I love you and thank you for reading. Merry Christmas.

Cherry x

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When I was out shopping yesterday with Robert I had a text from my dad. It said that yesterday was his father’s, my grandfather’s, birthday. My grandfather died when I was very young indeed. My other grandfather, my Mum’s dad, died when I was pregnant with my twins. Both of them took part in World War Two and both of them were changed forever because of it. Both of them missed out on seeing their children when they were small. In fact my mum didn’t see her dad really for the first two or three years of her life. I can’t actually imagine that. Those two men, the same men that fathered my parents, saw things, did things and experienced things that no human being should ever have to. My dad’s father came home a broken, broken man. He was part of the first group that went into Belsen. Please think twice before you do a Google image search for that word. But if you do you’ll see what my Grandad and others saw. When he arrived the people were still there, starving, ill and dying. The horror was still there. It hadn’t been cleaned up or sanitized. My grandad entered hell that day and he never really recovered. He saw things that people had done to other people that I can’t even type out on to my keyboard. And then he was expected to go home to his family, be a husband, work in a regular job and raise his children.

It wasn’t that easy.

My dad says he remembers a time when he was very little and he was sat on the tube going up to London with his parents. And my grandad sat on that public tube weeping. He suffered a breakdown after the war and this was the fallout.

Both my Nana’s were so strong, they were without their husbands for years at a time. It makes the six weeks that Robert spent in hospital this Summer look like the blink of an eye. They held homes and children together and didn’t complain. A cup of tea made it all better. There’s a huge amount to be said for stoicism in an age where the Self-Help shelves of book stores are heaving under the weight of advice. But then again thank goodness we talk nowadays, being able to talk about it may have saved my Grandad.

One of my biggest regrets is that I didn’t ask more questions about the war before my grandparents died. They were heroes, all of them, and when I read in the paper that some of today’s schoolchildren are overheard saying “what’s a holocaust?” it worries me a great deal.

I don’t want to forget about any of our servicemen or women from any war, not just the Second World War. Which is why Poppy Day/Remembrance Day/Armistice Day/Veterans Day is so important. My children will know exactly what our soldiers and all of our armed forces have done for us and continue do for us.

Last December, during the Tuition Fees riots, the Cenotaph in London was vandalized. Perhaps I’m overreacting but if my husband or my children’s father (or mother, there are women out there too) had been lost in combat, blown up by a roadside bomb or was now rebuilding a life after loosing a limb or two I’d want to know EXACTLY why those people thought that was acceptable.

I was contacted by Cath of Cottage Crafts. She makes the crocheted Poppies you see me wearing in these pictures. She doesn’t have to make them, her mum doesn’t have to work her fingers to the bone over the weekend helping Cath get them packaged and sent out. But Cath does, Cath’s mum does and Cath’s family were all roped in to helping as Cath has a terrific amount of orders coming in.

Cath is splitting all the profits from the sale of her poppies between The Royal British Legion and Help for Heroes. As of yesterday she has raised £1100 from the sale of her poppies alone. This means  she has exceed her target of £1000.

Her local wool shop, Knit2Together, in Newcastle under Lyme have supported Cath by selling her all the wool at a heavily discounted price and fellow e-bay members princesilk and belloandbellissimo have been selling her other supplies at discount with free postage.

Cath’s Mum taught her how to crochet a couple of years ago, and she has since gone crochet mad. She had the idea to design and crochet some Remembrance Poppies, stick them on Ebay and see what happens. She is now racing home from work, staying up until 1am and working in her lunch break furiously trying to make enough to keep up with the orders. She has even had to book a day off work to catch up on orders and she has enlisted the help of her family to help with printing orders, glueing, bagging, and stuffing in envelopes!

{Cath’s Poppies, waiting to be sent out }

The e-bay link to buy of of Cath’s poppy’s is here

You can find her on Twitter: cottage_crafts
or on Facebook: Cottage Crafts

Or you can e-mail here – cath@cottagecrafts.org.uk or cathfearn@hotmail.com

Cath said “I wanted to raise some money for the 2 charities mentioned, but I am not really built for running marathons (!) and I didn’t fancy being sponsored to lie in a bath of cold baked beans, so I thought “how can I use one of my hobbies to raise money?”

Bless you, Cath. Please think about ordering a Poppy from Cath. I have one, I’m wearing it now, and I will continue to wear it in remembrance of those far braver than me.

Please feel free to leave details of anyone, from any time, that you’d like to be remembered as a comment on today’s post or on my Facebook page. I know I’d love to read about them.

I love you, thank you for reading today and I’ll see you next time.

Cherry x

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Happy Friday!

Oh and by the way you guys are just about the most amazing bunch of people I have ever come across. Seriously, to give that much thought and consideration to the question of a forum posed yesterday was invaluable to me. Each reason for and against was totally valid and had merit.

My dream for a forum is to create a place where like minded people can chat, swap recipes, photos, crafts etc. An extension of this website not a substitute. A community.

But they do take a lot of managing and I have seen conversations go awry on other spaces due to misunderstandings etc. I’m misunderstood all the time when I’m writing this blog so I understand that. There is also a reply function already in place within the comments section of each post and there’s the Facebook page.

So I’m torn.

And when I’m torn I wait and think, because through many trials and even more errors I’ve found that  wisdom comes in the waiting and the answer comes in the thinking. It’s a hard lesson for someone who likes to make snap decisions but worth it.

I can tell you that there IS filmed content on the way so anyone who wanted a bit more Cherry Telly will not be disappointed and anyone who wasn’t that keen on it may have to look away.

And I’m rounding off the week at home. More specifically at my brand new mantlepiece that my Dad made for me. I’ll go in to detail on the mantle another time but right now I just wanted to show you my pale Squash.

After all of the vibrancy of the Orange pumpkins used at Halloween I’m so relieved when I can just go back to my pale and interesting Squash.

The simplicity of it is calming especially when it is surrounded by lego strewn all over the floor and felt toy vegetables stuck down the arms of the sofa.

Two urns.

Cracked, chipped, picked up for pence at a local charity shop about five years ago and still going strong.

Simple, simple, simple. And not expensive either. You don’t have to have urns, you may have baskets or over-sized vases that are missing the flowers of the summertime. There are always tonnes of Squash left over at this time of year so grab them if you see them and use them.

And while I go back to pondering whether to move forward with a forum I’ll leave you with all my love and very best wishes for a fabulous weekend.

And if you live in the UK DO NOT pick up a glowing sparkler!

I love you and thank you so much for reading. See you Monday with one of the first posts that will get you in the mood and prepped for Christmas!

Cherry x

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Photograph credit – Keiko Oikawa { www.keikooikawa.com }

Hello!

Thank you so much for all of your Christmas House ideas. LOVED them! Every time a new one came in I read it and got just a little bit more excited about planning for the silly season. It’s going to be a vintage Christmas this year I can feel it. I shall be starting on some of the ideas you put forward in the next couple of days so please stay tuned and we’ll do Christmas together.

The question I posed the day before yesterday, and the responses that followed, got me thinking. So forgive me but I have another question.

Would you like a Cherry Menlove forum to chat in?

There were about 90 responses to the Christmas question so there’s a good number for a vibrant conversation already. Couple that with nearly three thousand on my Facebook page and about one and a half thousand Twitter followers. I’m no Kim Kardashian when it comes to numbers but it’s a start. I had a forum once before but it was a clunky thing and now the templates for them are a lot slicker. I also have Cathy with me helping me out in the office and she is a whizz at all of this stuff.

I think it may be fun but if it’s not necessary then I know you’ll let me know.

And Go!…….again…….last question I promise.

I love you and thank you so much for reading.

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It is a happy one too!

Jodie is home. And Henry is home too. And it will all be OK.

My amazing younger sister and I had a long hug at her home on Friday and we both cried quite a bit. She’s been through such a lot but still kept her humour throughout (although I promised I wouldn’t share that bit with you as some things aren’t blog appropriate.) But her handling of an awful situation was very funny I will tell you that.

She is walking looking like a cashew nut, doubled over, but she gets better every time we see her. Her dry wit and sparkiness is rearing its head and it’s SUCH A RELIEF. And Henry? Well that boy is astonishing. Eating loads, sleeping loads, already lifting his head and generally going about his business. We love Henry. He can almost certainly stay.

Jodie has a way to go and needs to rest to get her strength back. But she is at home and we all know how that can aid recovery.

This was the field next to the house on Saturday morning. Robert had told me that he’d heard on the radio about how it was going to be a great morning for photographers. So as soon as the sun came up I nipped out in my slippers and got them soggy as I snapped away. I took a moment to breathe it all in, the air at certain times of the morning always smells slightly different, does it to you?

And then I raced back in to the family.

The last few months have seen quite a few members of my family on auto-pilot. Keeping our heads up and getting on. But now I think we can start to breathe again.

Unless Ned shoves a marshmallow in one of our mouths, that makes it hard to breathe.

What I mean is that I feel very strongly that we need to come off pause and forge ahead. I get the feeling that if we don’t we’ll miss stuff and in the words of that wise sage Steven Tyler of Aerosmith “I don’t wanna miss a thing”. With all that has taken place since June I feel a little out of synch. It hasn’t been a normal year so far so there has been no real Autumnal decorating ( a wee bit perhaps) or any Halloween preparation and decorating. But at the same time home, this house, and my love of the place that my children are being raised in has absolutely, without a shadow of a doubt, kept me sane. We haven’t decorated, got anywhere near to finishing the renovations or even unpacked all the boxes but this house and home are doing what it needs to do – nourish us in tough times.

And now that things seem to be calming down somewhat I can start putting my stamp on it.

“Hey Nye, the Christmas House will be open soon. What shall we do to get ready for it?”

Jodie emailed me on Sunday and told me that reading the comments and emails left for her made her feel stronger. I think that is miraculous. Jo doesn’t know many of the people that sent those wishes in and yet, YET, they are helping her recover. We all know how the internet, it’s prolific use of anonymity, lack of any discernible governing body and propensity for untruth can be awful, damaging and heartbreaking. But what about when it helps? What about when Twitter is used to start righteous revolutions and not just expose the sexual habits of footballers? Or when the pages of a website can tell you a story that changes your life and makes you think differently? Or when leaving a comment on a blog enables a new mum to recover faster from pneumonia, caught on the operating of a hospital whilst having a C-Section.

THAT is what I’m talking about. That is power, anything else is a poor imposter, and if we have a computer we have that power.

My love is the home. I’m a homebody. It’s not politics, celebrity, medicine or sport. It’s everything to do with the home and garden. Not just the decorative, technical and culinary but the psychological & spiritual too. How do our homes work for us? Are they working for us? Do they pay us back on the huge investments we make in them? Do they offer solace, peace and strength or do they sap us of every ounce of energy?

I’ve thought so much about this issue since Robert went in for his Cancer treatment because I needed my home to be there for me and my kids. I needed it to make our journey easier not more difficult.

And having come out the other side, with a tremendous feeling of relief that my husband is still alive I’m passionate about this subject. More than I have ever been before. And I know that my sister feels the same. She is bringing her first son home to house that is so full of love and life and she has done so much to make that possible. Her and Garry have worked their socks off to provide, not just material things, absolutely not, but structure, comfort, fun and safety.

When I was with Jo on Friday evening and I asked her if she would like me to change her bed and straighten her room out. Jodie, who is very capable, looked at me and said “that would be awesome”. So Garry and I went up and changed the bed for fresh linen, sorted the washing, folded the towels and just made the room easy. It only took ten minutes but it was something Jo couldn’t have done in her Cashew Nut state and Garry had been at the hospital all week with Jo.

That is a good example of her home working for her at a time when she needed it.

It took some effort but not too much. I still got to hold Henry for a good chunk of time and smell his new born baby head. Makes my mouth water just thinking of it…….but I promised Jo I wouldn’t bite him for being that delicious. Not even a little nibble. And I’ll keep my word on that………I hope.

I love you, thank you so much for once again giving my family strength with your generosity.

I shall see you tomorrow. I’m getting back on track and hope to be writing more on my site again and having more regular updates. And tomorrow I have a question for y’all!

Cherry x

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My sister has pneumonia, I was told last night. She is very weak and is being fed by a tube that she has in her nose leading down to her stomach.

We need her to get better.

Henry, who is doing fantastically, needs her to get better. I know she will get better but she’s exhausted and that can make it harder.

I don’t really like to ask anything from the people who read this site but we need your thoughts, prayers and strength.

I’ll keep you posted.

Many thanks.

I love you, I thank you and I am seeing the post in my mind that allows me to tell you Jodie is all better and going home with the baby. I’m also believing that it will happen very quickly. Pneumonia is absolutely treatable, we know this, but she’s having a hard time with it.

Cherry x
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Congratulations dear Jodie. Well done for a tough pregnancy and a really tough labour and birth. I remember it all very well.

Yesterday was also the start of the second part of the shoot for my first book which is due out next year. The gang were back together and here are some behind the scenes shots you may like.

Keiko, my favourite photographer, back on set with all of her talent and beauty.

Nik-Nak and I discussing the food. She rocks does Nikki.

My Dad was an invaluable help yesterday. He worked very hard with the set-ups. But he did have a tendency to walk through the middle of the shots with large boxes and cups of tea balancing precariously on top of them. Odd!

We were absolutely blessed with the weather, a perfect sunny Autumn day. But chilly too.

There is occasionally lots of waiting around on set. Here’s ‘our Cathy’. On hand, on the ball and basically brilliant.

Lou. My sister in law and one of my favourite people. Thank you for yesterday, beautiful Brockles. You were so helpful.

Anyone for chocolate?

My brother in law Paul. Thank you for yesterday, Paulio. You were so helpful. Looking forward to Christmas.

As the day went on it got colder and colder. And we all kinda knew that we wouldn’t be going in to the warm for a while. I started to feel bad for people the colder it got but everyone kept their focus and we got every single shot we needed.

Nikki Dupin the art director kept us on track and encouraged us to keep going …….even when we could no longer feel our faces.

But we laughed, messed around, made mischief and kept it going right until the end. And then we took the set down in ten minutes flat right before the rain came. THANK GOODNESS!

Today we shoot Christmas.

Yep, that silent squeal was me, you know how I feel about Christmas.

You do know how I feel about Christmas don’t you?

You do?

OK, I’ll be quiet now.

I love you and thank you for reading.

Cherry x

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But first of all a winner! Of course you’re all winners (we’re all winners simply because we make it through each and every day without killing each other or the cat) but today I have one specific winner and that person will be sent a copy of this book ….

Out of 177 entries (wow, that is a huge number!!)

The winner is Gigi and this was Gigi’s answer.

gigi says:

when its cold and wet like today I love to warm the house with a home made soup. When in season I make Lovage soup but at this time of year it has to me butternut squash with coconut milk and chilli…
…..when my kids come home from school we love to make a fresh jam roll or banana bread…. gobbled up in minutes!
Take care of your little family Cherry. I’m 3 years a cancer survivor and the first year is like a slow motion car crash, I received the all clear early on but you still feel the vibrations months later. It makes every moment in my kitchen with my kiddies special… I don’t sweat the small stuff anymore

I used the Random Number generator but I’m darned if I can get the stupid widget on my site and I’ve been at it for forty five minutes so I’m not going to bother any longer. I’m very touched that Gigi won as you can see from her response that she is a Cancer survivor and I’m realising, as she stated, that even when you get the all clear there still may be some cleaning up to do afterwards. It’s a journey, a climb and all of those other things that mean the same thing. I’m also going to try her Butternut Squash with Coconut Milk and Chili. I’ll make my own recipe Gigi and see how it compares to yours.

Gigi, please send your address to me at info@cherrymenlove.com

The responses that came in for this giveaway were so fantastic to read. I’m not kidding. The tales of cooking with parents, grandparents and children and creating wonderful dishes FOR other people and friends were like reading a fantastic, heartwarming book on the culinary lives of others. I think I’ll have more giveaways in the future and I got the tiniest glimpse in to why Oprah did her Favourite Things shows. Jeez, she must have been walking on air for weeks after shooting those babies!

And speaking of babies….

My sister’s waters broke the day before yesterday and she has been in labor ever since. Good grief, those Menlove children just never want to come out! But right now things are ‘progressing’ she is in hospital and the Midwife has said it all looks ‘promising’.

Come on little one, you can do it!!! Time to come out and join the madness…..and receive the love of course!

Have a wonderful weekend, I love you, I love that you read this site. I shall be with you on Monday with an update from the second part of the book shoot. I have a third part happening in January but next week we’re shooting the Christmas chapter. So you can imagine that there will be very little sleep going on because I’ll be so excited.

Have I ever told you how much I love Christmas?????………….

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So today, by way of a thank you, I’m having a giveaway. I haven’t had a giveaway for ages and ages and it’s time to start them again I think.

Let me tell you a little bit about this book.

There are some cook books that come in to your life and kitchen and sit there. You flick through them occasionally, marveling at the beautiful food photography, but nothing compels you to reach for the wooden spoon and tackle a recipe. This is not one of those books.

Mrs Beeton How To Cook is beautiful, packed full of recipes (220 of them) and everything about it makes you want to dive in on a Sunday afternoon to cook, bake and whip up a food frenzy in your kitchen.

The photography and design are beautiful but it’s the recipes that had me at hello!

Poached Lobster, written so simply you know that if you tried it it would work. There are even wine suggestions with it!
Braised Puy Lentils
Bakewell Pudding
Plum Crumble
Asparagus Soup
Braised Short Ribs of Beef

This book is full of good solid knowledge and the writing is light, informative and clear and it’s one of those books that if you worked your way through, from start to finish, at the end of it you would have developed so many new skills and talents you’d be setting the world alight before you knew it!

For those of you who love Mrs Beeton you’ll love this book and the modern twist on a perennial classic.

And I have a copy to give away.

All you have to do to enter is tell me what you love to cook, bake or prepare most in the kitchen.
You can enter from anywhere in the world, the book will be posted to you.
I shall announce the winner on Wednesday.
You can also buy the book from Amazon if you’d like more copies for friends and family for Christmas presents. I know I’ll be putting a few copies in to stockings!

Have a fantastic Monday. The whole week lays ahead, what can be done in the next seven days?
I love you and look forward to reading about what you love to do in your kitchen.

Cherry x

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I have learnt, from the comments on the last post, that some of you liked the picture of the Pheasants. Great!

I have learnt, from the comments on the last post, that some of you didn’t like the picture of the Pheasants. I understand that.

I have learnt, from the comments on the last post, that I’m not a “major icon”. Bummer!

I have learnt how to honour those birds by preparing them properly for cooking in under ten mins. I did that with my mother in law.

I have learnt a new recipe using Pheasant. Thank you Deliah.

And yesterday I learnt that Robert is now Cancer free.

Late in the afternoon we sat for over an hour in the waiting room to hear the results of Robert’s bone marrow biopsy that took place two weeks ago. The consultant was very quick to tell us that it had all gone. Nothing there.

Not. A. Speck.

It was like our entire bodies deflated in one go with relief.

Relief, now that is an underrated emotion.

So now we move on. Yes, Robert has a blood test in three months and then six months etc, etc. He also has to be on anti-viral drugs for the next eighteen months but that is not because of the Cancer, that is because his immune system was wiped out by the chemo. And then in ten years time he can officially be declared Cancer free.

But we’re not waiting a whole decade to get on with our lives. We’ve had the news we were hoping and praying so desperately for and now we have lives to lead, children to raise and adventures to have.

These children make everything OK and when Robert was not responding to treatment and I was here on my own I grew up overnight. I made the decision that I would raise them to know that life was good if you kept going, that if they work hard and believe in what they do they can do anything. When my alarm would go off on another day without Robert I would walk down the hall to the nursery and sort myself out so that by the time I opened the door on their beautiful sunny faces I was smiling and happy and full of life. They had no idea what was going on and they won’t until we talk about it as a family one day.

So that is what I have learnt, so far, this week.

All that and it’s only Wednesday.

Thank you so much for all of your comments, thoughts and prayers over the last four months. Be in no doubt that they have helped sustain us.

I love you, a lot, and thank you for reading.

Let’s move on. There is so much life out there and I want to live it.

Cherry x
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It was miserable because at some point you have to give up your lovely plans of a day on the beach with the kids and turn around in traffic and head back in the direction from whence you came. Robert loves the beach so incredibly much and I felt bad because I was driving that day and so it was me that put the car in to reverse and hightailed it out of the nose to tail scene that we found ourselves in. So apart from promising him that one day we’ll have a house by the sea we also agreed that we’d head down to the beach super early on Sunday morning so the kids could have another wee paddle and we could get to see the sunrise over the day to come.

Just seeing that huge ball of heat, one that comes up every single day no matter what, is enough to instill in us (once again) the knowledge that everything will be alright.

The kids enjoyed it too.

I love you, have a fantastic Monday and thank you so much for reading……..er, viewing!

Cherry x

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My huge sister is about to pop with her third child and she is currently sitting across from me updating some of the craft projects for the book. But what do I do when she’s gone? I can see some all night sessions in my future.

I’m not great at asking for help, I’ll be honest, I don’t like to put people out as we’re all busy but I have done now. I sent emails yesterday begging friends for help on the book shoot that takes place at the end of October. I’ve also asked my mum to help me with the house and laundry and all of the things that pile up. She is retired but is more than prepared to come over whenever she can and lend a hand as is Robert’s mum. We’re very lucky.

This is all such a new experience for me. I’ve got all of these amazing wonderful things to do and get done and suddenly I’m finding myself with a whole new set of tasks and jobs for the day. It’s very different to what I have been used to. Different but GREAT!

Of course in amongst all of this I have to remember the kids as they are my priority. I’ve never spent a night away from them yet but I think that time may be coming. They are going to stay at Grandma’s on the night of the second book shoot so I can pull a late one and not worry about the noise of the shoot waking them up. It’s very calm and gentle at Grandma’s so they’ll have a great sleep. Silly to be dreading something like that and in all honesty I’ll probably be so tired by the end of the first day that I’ll fall unconscious into bed in a heartbeat.

What I’m not doing is moaning about all of this. It really bugs me when people do that. You know the type, they get fantastic offers and opportunities, which they tell you about, and because they don’t have the ability to accept it all graciously they moan about the extra work or belittle it. I find that entirely disingenuous and I don’t respond to that. Come on folks, we can see it  a mile off.

I’m over the moon by all that is happening. It just means that I have to re-jig some stuff.

It also means that I have to ask for help, which I find hard.

In the meantime as long as I know the kids are alright, which they are, then I’m alright.

And as long as Robert is alright, he had a bone marrow biopsy yesterday and we’ll know the results in two weeks, then I’m alright.

Short post today. But I miss it when I don’t get to bash out to you guys on my keyboard. So I had to pop in for a quick fix.

I love you. Thank you for reading. You’re going to love this book, I know it!

I’ll leave you today with a picture of my very pregnant sister. Her midwife said she could pop this weekend but we’re not holding our breath for that. When Jo and I had twins they stayed put for thirty eight and a half weeks and thirty eight weeks respectively. Babies like it in there.

I do feel sorry for Jo right now. She’s usually very stylish and dresses so well but she’s gone in to the Twilight Zone of MASSIVE stretchy maternity smock like things.

Her husband said she looked like Demis Roussos today, which I didn’t get, and then I googled him…….

Ahhhh, it all becomes clear.

Cherry x
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And it nearly always has something to do with poo.

Let’s take this weekend for example. I had warned Robert that I would need to spend the whole of Saturday working on some bits for the book I am writing. There were some recipes to check and lots of photos to sort through and the week had been so crazy I booked the whole of Saturday off. This was cool. Everyone was fine with this and Robert had fun without me while I slowly boiled in the office at the top of the house. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing I’d rather give up a Saturday for than writing my very own book but the Indian Summer I never thought would appear seems to have landed in my office. I ended up staring out of the window across the field some of the time like a kid who’d been grounded. But I have a deadline and I’m taking it seriously.

However, when it came to about 5pm it was time for me to slide off my chair and go cool down in the rest of the house with my kids who were going to be going to bed soon. Feeling smug about the fact that I was on target to meet my book deadline I offered to do both nappies before my son and daughter were lifted in to their cots to go to sleep.

It was at this time that my daughter decided to work on her ‘Let me see if I can wriggle out of getting my nappy changed even though I’ve done a huge poo’ changing mat moves.

These moves consist of her doing a poo, waiting until she is laying down on the changing mat with me kneeling over her, and then, when her nappy is off and I’m reaching for the baby wipe and holding her ankles she starts to move her legs around so violently that if I try to grasp hold of them the poo not only goes all over her tiny legs but all over my forearms and all over the front of my clothes if she gets some poo on her feet.

I’m not thrilled by this new behavior I have to say. I have tried speaking sternly, holding her ankles a little more firmly and having all the wipes and clean nappy nearby but it seems as though I’m not really being taken seriously as Anaïs just giggles. And my problem is that I love that giggle so all of a sudden having poo smeared up to my elbows isn’t really an issue. Until I go downstairs and can still smell it on me.

On Sunday we went to the beach. We live a drive away from The Witterings so we went there. We knew that the sea would be at its warmest right now and I think Robert and I were both curious as to how the kids would do on the beach.

Ned is walking now and he loved it. It’s a great thing to watch a human being discover something like sand in their toes for the first time and I could still hear the shrieks of delight as he and Robert got further down the beach.

My little chap. He’s great. I love him so much. Whenever he reaches up with his face to give anyone a kiss he gives himself a round of applause.

I think he liked walking down the beach with his dad.

Nye and I stayed up on the blanket for a wee while as Nye was having fun in the sand too. She dug in deep up to her elbows and then threw it over her head.

A blob of sand landed on her head, creating a small pile, and stayed there for ages. I don’t know how she managed to balance it. I’m sure she knew it was there!

Of course it wasn’t all perfect and sweet. When Robert felt that he and Ned should make their way back to the blanket he had to wrestle with his son who DID NOT think it was time to go back and would have kept on walking up the beach for a very long time. You can’t tell from this picture but Ned was making a loud wailing sound right about now and Robert was trying to look nonchalant and in control. Which of course he wasn’t.

Right about now Robert is shooting a glance across to the family that are watching our worm son wriggle and wail.

So I took Ned off his dad’s hands and we made our way down to the water’s edge.

Their first time in the sea. With Robert being in hospital for most of the summer we haven’t had a chance to go away so days like this are an absolute gift.

They loved it.

More squeals and more sand thrown on to their heads.

I tried to roll my jeans up so they wouldn’t get too wet but to be honest I lost that battle almost instantly.

Which takes me back to my original point about not having anything sewn up when it comes to the kids. By the time we made it back to the car I was soaked as I then had to carry Ned, who was also soaked, back across the sand to the car. But I think it’s a good thing to go in to the sea fully clothed with your kids and get wet if you have to. If we lived in Florida this wouldn’t be such an issue but us Brits search for the sun on most days and if we find it we’re out in force.

They slept in the car on the way home. I drove as Robert can still get tired after a busy day and I’ve got to say it wasn’t the most comfortable of drives. I had wet sand all over me and my clothes and piles of it had formed on the floor of the car by the time we pulled in to the house.

It was definitely time for a bath and I decided that the kids and I would take one together. I ran it nice and warm with so many bubbles that they almost spilled out over the top. The three of us got in to the warm water and I could see the kids begin to relax, get a little bit calmer and start that delicious descent in to sleepiness.

I said to Nye “Ohhhh, isnt this cosy??” to which she replied “cosy” in her baby tones.

Ahhhhhhhhhh, she can say cosy! Yeeeeehhhhhhh!

She was pleased, I was over the moon, Ned was giving everyone a round of applause. We were home and warm and all enjoying a bubble bath together. What a perfect scene.

And then a huge big poo floated to the surface of the water.

Children, the Great Leveller.

I love you and thank you so much for reading.

Cherry x

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When we moved in to this house back in the month of May the field that runs alongside the garden was green. It was growing wheat and the wheat was young. Over the months we’ve watched it go from green to slightly yellow to golden and then pale brown. Hoping the whole time that it would not be harvested before a key chapter in my book was shot with this field as the backdrop.

I needn’t have worried. I was up in my office in the loft the other day and I heard the rumble of something in the distance. Living in the country, where it is relatively quiet, when you hear a rumble you head to the window. It becomes an event. I saw the harvest taking place in the distance and headed outside with my camera.

It was exciting to be honest. The noise was huge and although you can’t tell from this picture so was the combine harvester used for the job.

It was dusty too!

Yep, it was dusty  *but I loved it*

I recently watched a series on television presented by Andrew Marr called Mega Cities. In it Marr revealed that for the first time in history more people live in the City than in the countryside. I have lived in both and can appreciate both but one thing that I notice, above all, about living in the country is that you are able to observe the seasons, minute by minute, as they occur. If Marr’s statistic is fact then that means that there are millions of people across the world who will never get to see or experience the Harvest.

So I think I need to share more of my country environment with you as I count myself extremely fortunate to be able to live in it and experience it. And I’ve never thought that anything is worth having if you’re unable to share it.

Besides………

It’s beautiful.

Not many environments can make barbed wire look this good.

But the countryside can.

Another thing about the Autumn is that without even trying hibernation starts to creep in to the days. We invariably buy the Sunday papers more on an Autumn or Winter weekend than during the Summer and much more tea is drunk whist reading them.

Afternoon naps are also something that begin to appear on the horizon in a way that they never do when the sun is scorching outside. The sofa, a blanket and a film playing quietly in the background are all that is needed.

I’m a huge fan of the weekend afternoon nap and will literally take one wherever and whenever I can, which is never, but if there’s even a hint of a half hour I’ll grab it. It’s just so luxurious to be able to curl up and disappear at a time during the day when you’re supposedly meant to be present.

Little Lifetime Luxuries.

And it would seem as if my son, Ned, got the family memo with regards to this.

He can stay.

I’m picking blackberries this weekend with the babies…….even if it rains and we turn purple.

What are you doing?

I love you and thank you so much for reading.

Cherry x

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And it was good.

Oh so good.

I love you and thank you for reading.

Cherry x

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Ned : “I know you!”

Robert came home on Thursday, he said he wanted to come on home on Thursday, and although it was a different Thursday, it was a Thursday nonetheless. I’d spoken to his consultant and asked him to manage my expectations with regards to when Robert might be released from hospital and he told me that he would probably be able to give me about three hours notice. He wasn’t lying!

Suddenly Robert was home and sitting smack bang in the middle of the book shoot.

Now THAT is what I call a good day.

The kids seemed to have skipped right back in to life as it was before Robert went away. They have no real concept of the fact that he was away for 6 weeks. I love the way she’s eating a banana while holding on to his t-shirt for dear life.

Balance, she’s learning to balance, she could perhaps teach me.

Robert is thinner and gets tired. He has also been up to London twice since coming home for treatment but he’s here.

And we’re all very happy about this.

It was perhaps a wee bit ambitious of me to aim to write about the book shoot as it was going on so I’ve saved up all the pictures and will post them over the next few days. It was an amazing experience, with an amazing team and we get to do it all again in October and December.

Thank you for reading over the last seven weeks, SEVEN WEEKS! Your emails, comments, thoughts and prayers have kept us going as a family. They certainly kept me going as I was here, at the house, alone.

I feel that now Robert is in the building, so to speak, some space has been made in my head and I can get around to thinking about new recipes, some crafts, answering messages and dealing with my inbox, that sort of thing.

Before now it was impossible.

But I’m keeping a close eye on Robert and enjoying having him here so I’ll be taking it slow. I’m going to feed him back to strength and if any of the meals are tasty I’ll try and get them uploaded on to the site.

Robert is home and I’m determined to do all I can to keep him here even though we still have a way to go in his treatment. We both have lives to lead to the full, experiences to have and two children to raise. We also just renewed our National Trust membership so expect lots of pictures of trees!

I think we both feel like we escaped from something awful and for that we’re grateful.

Let’s carry on from where we left off and see where this big life takes us next.

I love you and thank you for reading

Cherry x

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